What is with the cheap paint on an expensive sled???

[97mach1]

I'm not impressed. Was cleaning my 07 Apex on the weekend and noticed that the black paint on the running boards where my feet sit is wearing off. I am very disapointed as I was under the impression Yamaha made a quality product. Overall I am very happy with the sled but am starting to question the quality. I also have a 97 Ski Doo mach1 with a black tunnel with many miles on it with absolutly no indication of wearing of the paint. The running boards on my 97 mach1 will thousands of miles are starting to look better than the 07 Apex with only 1700kms. I am VERY disapointed. Yes I can fix the Apex myself either by re-painting ore covering it up with some non-slip material however after paying a huge amount of money for a brand new sled, why should I have to??? I would think Yamaha would use good quality paint like Ski-Doo instead of some off the shelf crap.

 

[ROCKERDAN]

I'm not impressed. Was cleaning my 07 Apex on the weekend and noticed that the black paint on the running boards where my feet sit is wearing off. I am very disapointed as I was under the impression Yamaha made a quality product. Overall I am very happy with the sled but am starting to question the quality. I also have a 97 Ski Doo mach1 with a black tunnel with many miles on it with absolutly no indication of wearing of the paint. The running boards on my 97 mach1 will thousands of miles are starting to look better than the 07 Apex with only 1700kms. I am VERY disapointed. Yes I can fix the Apex myself either by re-painting ore covering it up with some non-slip material however after paying a huge amount of money for a brand new sled, why should I have to??? I would think Yamaha would use good quality paint like Ski-Doo instead of some off the shelf crap.

My sleds are always KEPT MINT,being a longtime DOO guy I was also very upset to see the cheap paint on tunnels....I couldnt look at that so I installed footwell pads...took some modifying of the warrior pads,had to cut the HOLES to "diamonds" to fit the grips nicely..looks awesome and no more crappy paint showing thru.

take alook

Dan

 

[97mach1]

Thanks, seen those pics earlier and I will probably do something along that line. Just very disapointed that I have to do anything at all and it also gets me to wondering if the cheaped out on the paint, what else did they cheap out on?

 

[onlyblue]

i had a 00 sxr with the blue tunnel, it did the same thing, but i figured just made it looked like we rode it... lol.....

in my honest opinion, dont sweat the small stuff.... no it shouldnt wear off, but oh well, your still on one of the nicest sleds made, period.

 

[YamiSmurf]

My old sled had a blue tunnel and I just used blue touch up paint at the end of each season. I too like to keep my sled perfect, but dealing with my OCD demons can be tough.

YS

 

[jwifferdill]

I had those running board inserts in my SRX as well and they helped out a lot. Had I not had them I would have stripped the paint off the tunnel and polished it.

 

[snappy]

rhino coat it if it bothers you.

 

[ReX]

Mine is already worn off on both sides also. By about 500 miles it was starting to wear through.

The painted running boards on my 10 year old 1997 Polaris Storm with something like 10x the miles on it are in (slightly) better shape than my 07 RTX.

I expected it though. Unless they use a very durable epoxy based paint or similar it is going to wear off quickly, especially when you get a little grit on your boots (which is bound to happen).

 

[LT1MCSS]

I dont think there is any good way to coat a tunnel with paint or powercoat. When you think about it you have boots rubbing up against it all day long wil riding. Its bound to just wear off!! The painted tunnels look good but most of the time i think they are better off just leaving them alluminum!

I wonder what an anodized tunnel would look like??

 

[ROCKERDAN]

Guys...DOOs tunnels were more like a epoxy or powdercoat paint process...my machs would look perfect after many thousands of miles...while the apexs wear within 200 miles.

the fact it yammie used paint and nothing special...i beleive they want to keep weight to an absolute minimum here,and a epoxy paint or powder coat over entire tunnel adds a few pounds compared to base painting...

I also noticed the 07 RTX A arms are yellow PAINT only...they chip easy...My 06 RTX has RED POWDERCOAT(or epoxy?)....cause mine look perfect after 2700 miles while buds NEW RTX yellow arms are all chipped already..you can see its just thin paint.

the pads look great and makes it easy to keep sled looking perfect...I ride with feet hooked into toeholds anyway,so I dont need the so called traction diamonds.

Only ones that will work are warrior pads cut to diamonds...I would bet by next season you will see pads like mine come out in accessory book....cause alot people complaining about poor paint.

dan

 

[nate007]

I thought about Line-Xing my boards also, but I am concerned about the coolers. Should I take them off first, and drill the rivets through the coating? Would the heat from the coolers hurt the coating? I have Line-X in my truck, and it is definatley tough. I don't think I would wear it out on my sled.
Does anybody know of a good safety paint that would work? I've seen the cheap stuff, but I would think that a good industrial safety paint (the gritty surface stuff) might be cool as well.
Nate

 

[97mach1]

Thanks for the input. Being a DOO guy for many years seeing paint wearing through on the Apex was a big shock. I guess I just assumed that all sleds used a similair paint process on thier tunnels. Aside from the paint, I've been happy with the Apex so far.

 

[ReX]

I also noticed the 07 RTX A arms are yellow PAINT only...they chip easy...My 06 RTX has RED POWDERCOAT(or epoxy?)....cause mine look perfect after 2700 miles while buds NEW RTX yellow arms are all chipped already..you can see its just thin paint.

You're right on the mark here too. My 07 RTX's lower A-arms are horribly chipped. So much that from the front, even from a distance the missing paint really stands out.

I was trying to figure out if something hit them because the paint really looks horrible. The only thing I can think of is when crossing soft snowbanks that the skis sink into that there might be gravel or something mixed in from the snow plow. The other possibility is its from riding in crusty snow where the skis break through every now and then and ice hammers the a-arms (I did a bit of riding in a field one day after some light freezing rain).

 

[nate007]

My a-arms on my GT have a few small chips in them, and there is Maroon colored paint underneath! I wonder if they used RTX arms, and painted them for the GT. I would like to find a touch up for that until I have them powdercoated.
Nate

 

[LT1MCSS]

My a-arms on my GT have a few small chips in them, and there is Maroon colored paint underneath! I wonder if they used RTX arms, and painted them for the GT. I would like to find a touch up for that until I have them powdercoated.
Nate

Here ya go. I have 2 small chips in my a-arms. I think i am going to try this company out. supposively they have all the yamaha colors.

http://www.colorrite.com/CRPLfactoryCol ... Field.y=10

I did it for the 06 year but if you have an 07 just go back through the snowmobile section and input year and model.